Wiggle Worm Fun!

Today was a beautiful day here in Albuquerque and the sun was shining with all of it's might! Since Carter napped right through pool-time hours at the YMCA, I decided it would be just as fun to run around the back yard in the sprinkler. After donning the appropriate swimming gear, Carter was ready to hit the beach, er, astroturf...

I tried to pare these photos down, but I just thought they were ALL too cute. So here's my boy in his wiggle worm fun glory:
(And just look how big my tomato plants are getting in the back corner!)
After seeing this next shot, you'd think he was a little timid. Nah, he'd run up and grab the worm and douse himself silly:
See... (And Matt kept turning the water up and down, up and down to drive him nuts.)
Carter had to get Daddy over to make sure it wasn't "broken"...
Nope, there's the water!
And soon thereafter, the clouds rolled over threatening a monsoon (nope, not this time...shucks! We SOOO need the rain!), so we had to pack it up. Carter got one last round with Mr. Wiggle Worm, this time making sure Daddy was soaked too:

And in case you'd like to see his playing in real time, here are a couple short videos of him running around, screaming like a banshee:








Love that 20 minutes of sprinkler time in the back yard is enough to make Carter a super happy kid! Remember those days? Maybe we should all take tomorrow off and play in the sun, eh?

Have a great week and thanks for reading! Eight posts in one day! It feels great to be caught up!
~kerrie

Chef Spidey

Two more posts before I end my blogging marathon of the day! Yes, thanks to some clever deleting skills, after these two, I'm all caught up! (Ugh, yes, I deleted some files...my bad...wasn't on purpose, I swear it...)

This weekend was jam-packed with a trip to the Farmer's Market, the Library Book Sale, and even the Hipsters Craft Fair. We typically do a lot of local supporting, but this weekend was local overload!

After a visit to the Craft Fair, I picked up Carter a cute little Spiderman apron so he can "help" in the kitchen. Plus, he's big on singing the Spiderman song ("Spiderman, Spiderman, Does whatever a spider can..."), so it was the perfect choice! And I'm only too happy to support a local crafter!

I also bought him a couple hand-puppets (to benefit a charity) and he thought they were potholders (awww, isn't that cute!). So we were cracking up as he ran around in his apron and oven mitts:
He was doing a little "cooking" too (from the bed of his semi-truck?):
Even some sharing with Daddy:
Yumm, tastes great!
And one of my favorite shots, putting his fork back into his apron pocket for safe-keeping:
Here's hoping that someday Chef Carter will prepare us a fine, home-cooked meal! We'll supply the local goods and he can do the cooking!
~kerrie

Oooooklahoma!

Matt and I made our [seemingly] annual trip to Oklahoma to hang out with some friends and family. We left after we both put in a full day of work and after all of my whining at 1:30AM, I made Matt stop at a hotel in Erick, OK, so I could stretch my legs. You see, Carter's so tall, his little legs dangle off the end of the carseat and therefore, I can't recline in the passenger seat. Add to that the fact that he kept waking up because he couldn't flip over due to the seat buckles, well, unhappy campers were what we were!

Despite the loooong car ride (about 13 hours total), we finally made it to the far eastern side of Oklahoma to Becky's (Matt's sister) house. It was 100+ degrees in the shade, so we were more than content to hang out inside and watch the horses and cows - just like Carter and Becky are here:
I've blogged about these crazy "attack" cows before, so you bet I was a little nervous that they were LICKING my car...
Yeah, LICKING my car. Apparently they like the taste of dust. Okay... Let's just move on, shall we?

We traveled a couple hours away to visit Matt's mom, Sally. She fought off a horrible bout of pneumonia earlier this year and has lost a lot of weight. However, I'm happy to report that she's regaining her strength and is still as feisty as ever! Here's a family shot:
From there, we visited Matt's good buddy, Wes, and had lunch with him and his girlfriend, Laurie. Here's a shot at the restaurant:
Couldn't resist stopping in to see another buddy of Matt's, Clay, and his wife, Jill, and their beautiful daughter, Charlotte (just LOOK at those eyes!!!). The kiddos played nicely together and enjoyed the indoor pool (ha!)!
All the travel wore Carter out and by nightfall, he crashed in the froggie position on his little aerobed:
The next morning Carter and Becky had some play time and a little breakfast while I packed up our gear:
Looks like the two of them had a very meaningful conversation and hopefully he was telling Becky what a wonderful time we had! I also hope he expressed his gratefulness for letting us crash at her place for the weekend!
[And for some reason, I didn't take any photos when Jamie came over for dinner... I MAY have deleted some photos from the memory card recently, because I'm lacking a significant number of photos from June and July. Whoops... Next time!))]

We decided to stay the night in Oklahoma City for the Fourth (and cut our trip home shorter!). We stayed in Bricktown, which is a quaint little area downtown with a lot of hotels, stadiums, restaurants, and even a riverwalk. Too bad it was like 105 degrees or we would have taken more photos of the riverwalk (and maybe actually spent some time ALONG the riverwalk...).

We did visit the Bass Pro Shops and let Carter "drive" the boats for about an hour. He even got a new snazzy life jacket and splashed and splashed and splashed in the pool! I swear, that kid is fearless! He'll get out and jump back in with no qualms about where he'll land. Lucky for him, we're waiting to catch him and won't just let him splat on the concrete!

Fortunately for us, our best pals (Chris and Renae) live just a few miles away from Bricktown and therefore, met us for lunch by our hotel. After snarfing some tasty pizza, we came back and let the kids (Hannah, Micah, and Carter) run amok inside our room. The closet was a HUGE hit with the gang and Hannah and Carter took turns shutting each other in:
The adults had some catching up to do, so we all just lounged and took it easy:
More closet fun:
Hannah surprises me every time with her adorableness:
And yes, we kept Carter locked in the cabinet under the sink when we stayed at the Marriott (I kid, I kid):
On the night of the Fourth, we walked along the riverwalk and stopped to feed the ducks some of our leftover bread from our BBQ dinner. Carter LOVED it and had a blast when one of the ducks jumped right up beside him (scary!):
Matt tried to snap a photo from the other bank, but it was pretty hard to see:
From there, we headed back toward our hotel and set up our lawnchairs right along the bank. They shot fireworks off right in front of our hotel, so we couldn't have asked for a better view! Carter's STILL talking about the fireworks and how they looked like "stars!"

Hope you, too, had a wonderful Independence Day and I hope you didn't melt in the 100+ degree temps!
~kerrie

ABQ Comic Con, Meet Cthulhu

Matt and some buddies recently attended the first (hopefully annual) Comic Convention here in Albuquerque. One of the blogs I read regularly (epbot.com) covers some of the REALLY big "cons" (as the cool people call them) in Orlando, so I've sort of gotten an idea of what they are all about.

Basically attendees dress up as "comic" or other characters, "stars" come out to sign autographs (ABQ hosted Stan Lee!), and there's a boat load of merchandise you can buy. There ya have it folks, in one simple sentence. I asked Matt to snap a few photos during the day so I could get a taste of the experience without having to pay the $40, or whatever ungodly amount it was. So here's what he came home with...

I'll start with a few pics of the merchandise - starting with a whole selection of goggles for the ever-popular "steampunk" costuming (google it, it's crazy cool):
Some disgusting hand-knitted zombie dolls:
And now, the costumes... I haven't a clue who most of these characters are, so if Matt decides to later edit this post, he can fill you in. I know these next guys are Storm Troopers (the white ones) with Darth Vadar:
Wonder Woman, with her kiddos, Hulk and Super Girl:
Batman and Superman, both of which are VERY muscular:
Some ninja-type folks:
Awww, Harry Potter represent!
Some gross looking guy with a magic wand (guess he's trying to also represent Harry Potter?):
This is Brett. Apparently he got shot with some laser thing right in the chest:
And finally, my favorite picture from the Albuquerque Convention Center. This woman (yes, it's a woman) makes me chuckle every time I pass it along the "sports" hall of fame row along the long hallway at the east wing of the convention center:
The fact that Matt took that picture makes me love him even more than I already do! :)

Matt also brought home a few gifts, including an adorable hat for Carter. Matt thought it was a squid, I thought it was an octopus:
Looks like it's Cthulhu, drooling for some lunch:
And Carter pretty much wore it all day (despite the near-100 degree temps) and looked absolutely adorable:
Rock on, Comic Con! Maybe I'll go next year and take more photos to show off my geek style!
~kerrie